A mistrial was declared Saturday after 52 hours of deliberations in the sexual assault case against comedian Bill Cosby.
Now the 79-year-old and his team are planning to get back to work by teaching young people, “especially young athletes of today,” to dodge sexual assault allegations.
“We are now planning town halls, and we’ll be coming to this city (Birmingham, Ala.) sometime in July. We want to talk to young people, because this is bigger than Bill Cosby,” Cosby’s spokesman Andrew Wyatt said in an interview on “Good Day Alabama” Wednesday. “This issue can affect any young person. Especially young athletes of today.”
Fellow spokesperson Ebonee Benson added that the town halls will educate people how to respond to false claims of sexual assault — like in Cosby’s case, his lawyers argued.
So instead of teaching young male athletes the importance of consent or how to be self-aware of inappropriate behavior, Cosby’s town halls will teach how not to get accused of sexual assault.
“The laws are changing. The statute of limitations for victims of sexual assault are being extended, so this is why people need to be educated,” Benson said. “A brush against a shoulder, you know, anything at this point, can be considered sexual assault.”
It is ironic that the man with the sexual harassment scandal come about to teaches youngster about avoiding sexual allegations.
Bill Cosby’s retrial is months away, but his legal team is already floating the possibility that he could take the stand the second time around.
The 79-year-old comedian did not testify in his own defense at his first trial, which ended Saturday with a hung jury.
But one of his attorneys, Angela Agrusa, said that might change.
“We never ruled it out,” she told NBC News. “He’s a very charismatic and articulate person.”
Some legal experts say it would be too risky for Cosby to testify, noting the damaging admissions he made about extramarital affairs and giving women drugs and money in a civil deposition that was used against him in the criminal case.
